Tough Scramble to Marten Lake
Margie and I went for a hike up the Taylor River in the Cascades on Saturday, May 5. The Taylor River joins the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River a few miles east of North Bend, WA.
Figure 1: The Taylor River. (Click on this or the other images in this story to see a larger view.)
We started hiking out of the The first three miles of the Taylor River trail, which is really a deserted road. A little before the 1/2 mile point Quartz Trail splits off to the left. We kept to the right, by the river. The trail was washed out in a few places near the start, but overall it was a pleasant ramble through beautiful shady, second growth forest.
Figure 2: A typically pleasant stretch of the Taylor River trail as it heads up to Snoqualmie Lake.
At about the three mile point we hit Marten Creek, which fell tumbling down a mountain side in a series of waterfalls before joining the Taylor River.
Figure 3: This picture was a taken from a bridge over Marten Creek.
Our guide book, "55 Hikes around Snoqualmie Pass," talked of an old trail which followed the creek up to Marten Lake. The author, the inimitable curmudgeon Harvey Manning, said that the lake was "considered by fans of holes in the ground filled with water and trout to be one of the finest." We didn't care much about the trout, and we hadn't seen any bicycles, but still this description caught our fancy.
So we found the half abandoned trail to Marten Lake and started climbing steeply up the mountain side. Almost immediately we entered an old growth forest consisting mostly of huge old snags. The forest was nevertheless dark and green and lovely.
We soon realized that no work had been done on the trail in many years. We kept losing the trail, and then bushwhacking back and forth across the hill side to pick it up once more. We passed several amazing waterfalls that we usually could only glimpse through the trees. The path was frequently studded with trillium, more than I had ever seen in one place.
Figure 4: We saw dozens of trillium as hiked up to Marten Lake.
Glancing back over our shoulders as we struggled up the steep trail, we caught majestic views of Treen Peak and Garfield Mountain.
Figure 5: It had snowed recently, and the ancient crags of the surrounding mountains were limned in white.
As we neared the top of the pass where the lake lay, we could look behind us to see Cascade Mountain vistas as clear and fresh as the crisp May air.
Figure 6: I took this picture on our way back down from the lake. By then it was starting to clear, and the sun gleamed off the white peaks.
The ascent along the battered trail was not only tough, and not only required frequent forays into bushwhacking, but was also considerably further and much steeper than we had supposed. It wasn't long before we were wandering through snow drifts that were four and five feet deep in places. I have some pictures of these stretches of the trail, but unfortunately I was a bit giddy by then, and all of them feature my lovely Margie stumbling along in a gallant but most unflattering manner in disheveled muddy clothes, her hair akimbo. In the interest of domestic harmony, I'm going to omit them.
The lake itself, when we finally reached it, was still covered in snow. The frozen waters sat in a lovely, rugged bowl of dark gray rock and gray/green firs. One could easily imagine the tumbled glacier that must of created such a stark and majestic site. I would have to stitch several pictures together to give you a full panorama of the majestic bowl in which the lake stood, and I don't have time for that now. Nevertheless, the picture below should give you a feeling for the scene.
Figure 7: To our surprise, we found Marten Lake was covered in snow and ice.
The route up the mountain had been muddy in places, and we could see that two other people had come up the trail recently. In one of those odd twists of fate, they reached the lake about the same time we did. It would not surprise me if we were among the very first people who had made the ascent in 2007. Someone else had passed through with snow shoes, but those prints could have been several days old.
I suppose it was shame that our solitude was interrupted by these two young strangers. But we shared several good natured laughs with them about the haphazard condition of the trail, and about the wild final scramble over the last half mile in the deep snow which obscured any signs of a path. We talked about the many beautiful and majestic waterfalls we had seen, and then found our own protected view points from which to admire the lake.
The trip back down was much easier than the trip up. For some reason, I found it much easier to follow the trail, and only lost it in a few places where felled trees from the winter storms had completely hidden the original route. I suppose that my eyes were opening up, my senses unfolding, as the cares of daily life melted away under the benign influence of the wild and untamed back country.
We got back to the car well before dark. The trip had taken us nearly six hours, and we were feeling deliciously tired and achingly ready for the soft comforts of our little Subaru. Nevertheless, it was hard to part from the mountains. They had taken us out of the quotidian world filled with trivial troubles and needless stresses. It was hard to leave the sanity of the wilderness and head back into our complicated, 21st Century lives filled with computers, cell phones and monthly bills. But as often happens after a good hike in the back country, I found that the spirit of the wilderness lingered with me for some time. In fact, it still has not totally disappeared.
Resources: A 1998 article in the PI
Route: Exit #34 from I-90. Drive north on 468th Avenue. In 0.6 miles, turn right onto SE Middle Fork Road (FS Road #56). The parking lot for Taylor River is at a little less than 12 miles.
Warnings: The say there are bycicles on the Taylor River trail in the warmer months. Of course Harvey was right, there aren't likely to be any bicycles at Marten Lake!
